The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith

by Justin Miller

  “That’s better! Jin, do you really think you’ll be able to help? Nobody would blame you if you fail, you know?” She looked down and to the side as she asked, and I could tell she didn’t expect any of this to work.

  “Hey, that’s not the kind of thing you should be asking, right?” I smiled to her. “If you think you can trust me, then do so. I’ll definitely fix this.”

  She nodded again, smiling. “I can trust you. After all the secrets you’ve told me, I know that much.”

  “Also, I know you are a succubus and all, but isn’t your personality a bit too much on the cute side?” I teased her with a smirk, and she puffed out her cheeks to pout.

  “I told you, we aren’t sex demons! We’re just good looking! Wait, cute?” Suddenly, my words seemed to register and she blushed a bit. “Er.. thanks. I don’t think a human ever said that about me… when they actually know what I am.”

  “Then they’re missing out. I’ll be the first one to admit that you have one of the best bodies I’ve ever seen, but that’s about where the comparison between you and the succubus stories I’ve heard about come to an end. There are times that I wonder how you can lead the entire demon race, with your personality.”

  “And just what is that supposed to mean?” She turns a glare towards me, and I get the feeling explaining quickly would be good.

  “Well, you just seem too nice, really. I expected the leader of the demon race to be some hardass that would sooner torture information out of people than ask for it.”

  “Ah.. there are those like that too. Most of the ones that give us a bad reputation are the criminals of our kind. I have been queen for as long as I have because, while I am the strongest among us, I am also the most fit to rule. Aside from our appearance, we aren’t all that different from you humans. There are actually quite a number of demons living on the surface in disguise. Though, for their safety I won’t tell you who. I may trust you, but I would not risk speaking the words that could allow them to be targeted. The ears of the heavenly host extend far.”

  “So.. they could spy on you, even in your own realm?”

  Lilith nods, a pained expression on her face. “The King of Heaven may hear anything spoken in the light, while the Queen of Hell hears all that is said in darkness. Remember that.. if you ever need my help, just call for me in the dark. If I can, I’ll be there. You’ve earned that much.”

  I smirked to her, picking up the book and moving to sit next to her on the bed, mostly so I could pat her head playfully. “You never planned to let me off without a reward, did you?”

  She smiled over to me, and leaned against my arm. “Nope. Not in my nature to leave a favor unpaid. And this is perhaps a favor that will last as long as I do. I have to start early.”

  “Sounds like you’d join me for my adventure if you thought you could get away with it.”

  “In a heartbeat. It’d be many times more fun than managing the court. But, I’ll settle for you relying on me when things get bad, or you need something from me.”

  “That I can live with. You know, I’ve already got a contract with a high ranking elf mage. Adding the queen of demons to the list gives me quite the powerful allies.”

  Lilith laughed against my arm as I went back to reading. “You, mister, know how to get around. Guess you have your harem after all.”

  I smirked down to her, “Maybe. But at least I’m not one of those people that has a harem and is oblivious about it, right? I always hate stories like that.”

  “Right? People who can’t appreciate the women around them don’t need that kind of attention.”

  “Yeah.” I finally finished my first read through the book, and had an idea.

  Magical Knowledge has increased to 24

  “Huh.. I need to add yet another piece to the ritual. A spell that lets me analyze your magic to identify which pieces are part of the contract. Then, I can use that to target those pieces for the next step.”

  Suddenly, Lilith begins squirming against me, speaking in a high pitched voice. “Oh my~, our hero is going to take a peek at my very being. How naughty~.”

  I laughed again, shaking my head. “Must everything be an innuendo with you?”

  “Yup~. You know, that’s probably where the whole sex demon thing came from, now that I think about it. I just really like to tease people.” She grinned up to me, and I kept laughing.

  “I can see that. But, if I can make the magic to analyze the different pieces of your aura, I can probably do both the separation and integration as one rune, leaving only the linking.”

  “Oh, well, if that’s the magic you need, could you adapt a magic that lets you analyze curses?”

  “Maybe, but I’d have to cast it at a master level to get what we need, so that would have to be a powerful ritual. You are quite knowledgeable, you know?”

  “I’ve been around longer than you can imagine. I learned a few things down the road~.” She sticks her tongue out at me playfully.

  Really, she’s saying that, but doesn’t she really act like a kid at times?

  “Did you just think something rude?” She narrows her eyes at me.

  “Of course not. I take it you can have the ritual prepared for the analysis? I’d like to test it before moving on to the next stage.”

  “I can take care of that. I’ll have a room set up for you tomorrow for that. It should take until then to get the materials and circle set up. What did you mean about only needing the one rune for both separating and integrating, though? Wouldn’t that naturally take two runes?”

  “Well, if you look at it normally, yes. But, if I can isolate the components, then I can identify them as the target of a single rune, and use existing ones to remove and replace them. So, I’ll just need to make a rune that targets properties of a target’s magic, and one that links two items together. That last one is the one that’ll give me trouble, since one of the objects is something I have no access to.”

  Lilith nodded against my arm, looking towards the book. “Do you need me to get you another book for your research?”

  “No… I don’t think it would help. There’s one main problem with this whole thing that I was worried about, but this book had the answer for it after all.”

  “Oh?”

  “Yeah. I was worried that even if I got the spells made, I wouldn’t be able to do what you need because my skill with the spells would be too low. But, according to this…”

  “You can use certain elements in the ritual to boost your spells to their maximum potential, right?”

  I smirked down to her. “Right. Figures, I could have saved a bunch of time if I had just asked you about it.”

  Lilith detached from my arm to strike a pose that showed entirely too much cleavage. “Well, I am the queen of all demons. It would be entirely improper if I didn’t know about magic.”

  “True, true. So, you can have your people work on the ritual to get it ready, and we’ll work on the runes. I’ve got an idea for one, but the other will take some thinking.”

  “Well.. if you’ve already got an idea for one, it shouldn’t take too long to realize it. You should even be done well before your deadline~.” She smiled up to me and nodded quickly.

  “Well, I can hope so. If I am, mind if we stay for the extra few days to train after we are done?”

  She grinned up to me and nodded again. “Jin, if you can solve the problem between the demons and angels, you can stay here whenever you want.”

  I couldn’t help but let out a laugh. “Well, that certainly would save on expenses with the inns.”

  “I would hope that the chambers here are of a nicer quality too! I know it has been some time since I visited the mortal realm, but if this can only be compared to a common room in an inn, I might start pouting.”

  “No, this is definitely a step above anything you’d find in an inn, or most houses. It is fit for a queen after all. Even if it is a lewd queen.”

  “Oh, you~. Flattery will get you ev
erywhere.” She winked playfully to me, and we both laughed. Finally, I got back up and returned to the desk.

  “Okay, now to get to work. I should have the first rune done tonight, and then I’ll teach it to you. It won’t have as many uses as my first creation, but I think you could still find some interesting things to do with it.” I grinned and grabbed the pen and paper, closing my eyes to focus.

  I had learned when creating Rewrite that to make a rune, you focus on the meaning you want to give, and the shape will flow naturally. The thing most people get obsessed with is that they focus too much on the shape itself, when it’s the meaning that gives a rune power. In a sense, there is a theoretical rune for any definition, and all I am doing is discovering them.

  Runescript has increased to 2

  As I had the definition clear in my mind, Objects born of a single origin, the shape gradually began forming in my head, and I used the paper in front of me to begin drawing it. This definitely wasn’t as powerful a rune as Rewrite, but at the same time it could be, since it could cover any distance.

  At some point, Lilith must have moved to stand behind me, because she let out a soft gasp when my hand finally stopped moving. “This…”

  “I call it ‘Twin’, meaning ‘Objects born of a single origin’. I’d like to test it, if you don’t mind?”

  She nodded dimly, “Okay, how?”

  “Can you get me two identical swords, forged by the same smith? If they are similar enough, then it should be a good enough test.”

  She nodded, and quickly turned to leave the room. A second later, I could hear her shouting instructions to a guard, whose loud footsteps could be heard retreating down the corridor. A few minutes later, I could hear those footsteps returning, and then Lilith entered the room again, carrying two fairly normal looking longswords. Well, anything that would look special would likely be too special for this test to work.

  “Will these work? They’re just mass produced weapons from our forge, so they should be close to identical.” She presented me with the two weapons for inspection.

  After looking them over carefully, I couldn’t find any clear differences. “Okay, this should work. Just lay them down on the floor about six feet apart while I prepare the spell.” She did as instructed carefully, as if the positioning had to be exactly as I said.

  Knowing that I couldn’t simply call up my Spell Knowledge skill to get a unique spell, I had to work it out in my head. Thankfully, my Magical Knowledge was almost fully mastered--if 30 was a master level, which seemed to be the case from the Archmage quest I received-- so finding a rune that meant ‘Share Motion’ was not a difficult task. I just had to combine that with my new Twin rune.

  Please select a name for your new spell.

  I focused the name as Move Twins. This wasn’t going to be the final spell I used in the ritual, but I had to first test that the rune did what I wanted.

  Move Twins has been added to your Spell List.

  “Okay, it’s ready.” I pulled open my grimoire, and grimaced when I saw the description of the spell.

  “Is something wrong?” Lilith asked, a worried tone in her voice.

  “Oh.. no… the spell looks like it’ll work. Just, wasn’t expecting… well, I’m sure you’ll find out soon.” I moved to the chant line. “Struck together, forged apart, may these twins share once more.” I targeted one of the swords with the spell, and they both began glowing faintly.

  Gulping, I reached down and grabbed the hilt of the sword. “Moment of truth.” I slowly began lifting the sword, and the other one matched its movement exactly. Very carefully, I pointed both swords at the ground slowly, waiting for what I knew was about to happen.

  Sure enough, there was a shout coming from down the hall, just as my mana dipped down below one half. This casting seemed to use quite a lot. “My queen! Something has possessed the armory!” One of the demons could be heard shouting from the other side of the door, and Lilith slowly turned her head to me.

  “...The unexpected..?” She asked, eyes wide and I nodded. “Could you.. uh… stop it? I’d rather not make them panic more..” She was fighting a laugh that seemed to be trying to escape at the thought of this sending her armory into chaos.

  “Sure…” I cancelled the spell, and the sword I wasn’t holding-- and I’m guessing the rest of its ‘twins’-- dropped to the ground. “Well… it worked.”

  Finally, she couldn’t help it anymore and let out a loud and ridiculous laugh that echoed throughout the room. “Oh, I’ll say! I would have been happy if you had just moved the one sword. But no, you have to move all of them!” She gave me a quick hug, making me drop the sword I was holding, and mashed her lips against mine before either of us could think about it.

  I froze for a second, having not expected to be kissed by Lilith like that. It wasn’t unpleasant by any means, just unexpected. After a moment, she blushed and pulled away. “Uhm.. sorry… got caught up in the moment.” She looked at me with eyes that seemed to be begging forgiveness. Apparently, the demon queen does the best puppy dog eyes.

  “Don’t apologize, Lilith. It was nice. Unexpected, but nice.”

  “So… you’re not mad?” She looked slightly relieved, and very hopeful.

  “Of course not. You think I would have walked into a succubus’s room and not have been prepared to at least get kissed at some point?” I smirked to her, and she huffed.

  “Sexy demons, not sex demons! How many times do I have to say it!?” She pretended to be upset, but I could see in her eyes that she was just glad that her sudden kiss hadn’t ruined anything. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand you.”

  “What’s there to understand. Handsome, smart, charming, and a clever mage just about sum me up.” I chuckled, and she shook her head with a smirk.

  “Don’t forget modest.”

  “Right, that too. Thanks for reminding me.”

  “But… this rune seems more powerful than you had planned. Are you sure it’s alright to teach it to us?”

  “I made a promise, didn’t I?” I smiled and patted her head playfully. “I already wrote it down for you and explained it, anyways. No point trying to take it back even if I wanted to.”

  She smiled, and nodded. “Thanks. Well, luckily there aren’t any other contracts identical to the one between me and the king of angels. So we won’t have a repeat of tonight.” She chuckled a bit at the thought.

  “You’re still imagining their faces when suddenly a bunch of longswords started moving on their own, aren’t you?”

  “Maybe~.” She laughed, and I quickly joined in, before we laid down to rest until Denise returned.

  Chapter 15

  The next morning, I had a question for Lilith while reading through the advanced magic book again. “Hey, Lilith, come here for a second?”

  She skipped happily over to my side. “Hmm? What is it?”

  “I noticed a term used in this book, but I’m not quite sure I understand, since it isn’t referenced in any of the others I read in the mage’s library.”

  “What term?” She tilted her head to the side curiously.

  “It’s called Grand Magic. Do you know what that means?”

  “Ahh, right. It’s an old way to classify spells by power. Back when magic was first being developed by the various races, it was classified as apprentice, scholar, adept, royal, grand, and divine. Six ranks of magic, though most people only could get as far as royal. Grand Magic is a spell consisting of untold numbers of runes, and can only be used by those who have fully mastered a field of magic.”